Something Buggy
by Nightw2
Summary: The Caped Avenger battles an army of giant spiders. Now completed. Rated PG-13 for implied end situations
1. The Web Starts Weaving

Note: Garfield (aka the Caped Avenger), Odie and Jon are all copyrighted by Jim Davis, so I write this story with absolutely NO profit motive.  
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The story opened in the Arbuckle home about two months after the Caped Avenger's epic battle against Lord Stinkipottso, where Garfield was swatting around a few spiders just for the heck of it as the orange cat was totally bored out of his skull (plus, let's face it, his hatred of spiders is infamous). Apparently, the procedure that gave him his super-powers also fixed it so that his energy would be fully replenished after just a half-hour's sleep and when his Caped Avenger energy is THAT high, he can't sleep even if he WANTS to.  
  
The trouble was, except for the battle with Lord Stinkipottso and an incident a month before this story's setting involving a small band of super-powered international terrorists, he hasn't faced any headline-grabbing challenges in the two months since he started secretly operating as the Caped Avenger for real. Oh, there was plenty of crime for him to fight, but it's been almost all bank robbers, muggers, car thieves, low-level racketeers and would-be kidnappers; the sort of stuff that was child's play with his powers. He fought that crime because it was good for his heroic image to pay as much attention to the non-super-criminals as the super ones and crime-fighting DID help him work up an appetite, but the fact remained he longed for a real challenge; something that would allow him to put his powers to the test and, therefore, gain greater glory upon victory.  
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Little did the orange cat realize that his desire for some REAL action would be granted all too quickly for, at that exact same time, a small team of scientists at a lab elsewhere in the city was analyzing some scraps of alien technolgy left over from the Caped Avenger's battle with Lord Stinkipottso. As the scientists analyzed the energy readings from the extra-terrestrial materials, they failed to notice a small spider creeping toward the piece with the highest energy reading. After a few seconds, the spider crept away as unnoticed as it arrived on the scene.  
  
Due to the energy the spider absorbed, it very slowly started to increase in size, proportionate physical ability AND intellect. Within one hour, that spider was fifteen inches long, had peak human intelligence and twice the proportionate physical abilities of its non-mutated counterparts. What's more, the spider also had a telepathic link with all other spiders within its immediate area AND could emit optic beams capable of enlarging other spiders to two-and-a-half feet long and increasing their proportionate physical powers fourfold (though, unlike the original spider, NO increased intellect or telepathic abiilities were included).  
  
Using its newfound telepathic control over other spiders, this super-intelligent spider very quickly brought sixteen spiders within the range of its optic enlarging beams and these mentally-controlled archanids quickly webbed up all of the scientists in the lab and allowed their leader to seize control over the aforementioned lab, even as the leader continued to grow in size, power and intellect.  
  
Within two hours of its exposure to the energy from those alien materials that spider had become twice as large, proportionately powerful and intelligent as before. What's more, it could now enlarge its arachnid minions to four times its own size and proportionate physical power while still maintaining full mental control over them (providing they stay within a mile of their leader). Under its mental control, the fellow spiders under its command dug a large enough hole to conceal themselves until their leader's powers were fully-developed AND it had enough practice using those powers.  
  
By the end of the third hour, the original spider had grown to five feet long and had four times peak human intelligence, eight times the proportionate physical powers of an ordinary spider, could enlarge any other spider to EIGHT times its own size and proportionate physical prowess AND completely control any other spiders within a two-mile range. By this time the spider cackled "My mental calculations have already determined that my growth and power increase will stop within an hour, but, by then, my powers will be great enough to control every spider in this city AND enlarge them to a size that will render most of these lousy humans powerless. Not even this Caped Avenger I've heard stories about will be able to stop my mighty arachnid armies once I've reached my full power." though this spider was smart enough even in the first hour to keep the spiders he enslaved and enlarged close enough to the lab and deep enough underground to NOT attract the Caped Avenger's attention until it was powerful enough to unleash its armies with confidence.  
  
Finally, true to the spider's calculations, it stopped growing at the end of the fourth hour at the size of ten feet and three tons with sixteen times the proportionate physical abilities of a non-mutated spider, eight times peak human intelligence, absolute mental control over all fellow spiders within a four-mile radius and the power to enlarge other spiders into 160-foot, 12, 800-ton monsters with 256 times the proportionate physical abilities of normal-sized spiders.  
  
By the end of a week, the lead spider; who started calling itself the Arachnid King; had amassed an army of 128 160-foot spider-soldiers and had tunnels carefully constructed so that his subjects could strike anywhere in the city and he could remain carefully hidden but still within the four mile range of his control. With that, the Arachnid King replied "All is now in readiness, my faithful followers. With your awesome power under my guidance, we'll soon bring this city to its knees. So says the Arachnid King."  
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All too quickly, the Arachnid King's armies started to strike at the unsuspecting city. At an army base, four of those giant spiders under the Arachnid King's control hopelessly disabled all of the military weapons and vehicles and trapped all the military personnel with the use of their awesome physical strength and impossibly strong webbing just before, under the Arachnid King's control . At two of the city's police stations (the four mile range on the giant spider control meant the Arachnid King could only attack the police stations one at a time), all of the cops are kept trapped in the buildings by the spiders' webbing.  
  
By the time of the THIRD police station attack, however, the Caped Avenger was on routine patrol and happened to be over the area four of the spiders were attacking. The feline hero sighed and thought "I suppose this is supposed to be some sort of poetic justice. After all the normal-sized spiders I've swatted and squished, I now have to face a set of GIANT spiders. Oh well, I said I wanted a challenge." as he swooped down after the four 160-foot spiders he saw.  
  
With a powerful right hook, the Caped Avenger sent the first spider flying only to end up getting caught in the webbing of the other three spiders. Though this webbing was too strong for even the Caped Avenger to break, the super-powered feline started flying up before the three giant spiders stopped spinning their webbing, dragging all three 160-foot spiders with him while simultaneously using his laser vision at full power to cut through the webbing ensnaring him. After he flew the spiders up to 32, 000 feet but BEFORE he finished cutting through the webbing, the Caped Avenger started spinning around very fast using the resulting centrifugal force to take the fight out of those three spiders. By the time he was done cutting through the webbing, the Caped Avenger had those three giant spiders too dizzy to put up a fight. As they all fell, the mighty feline caught all three of them (one in both front paws and one each in one of his hind paws) and brought himself down just as the spider he punched coming in started to get up and was joined by four others, who were insructed by the Arachnid King to back up the one getting back to its feet.  
  
Wasting no time, the feline hero threw each of the giant spiders he was holding into one of the others and then flew up to the last two, grabbed each in one of his front paws and slammed their heads together before dropping them hard on two of the other six spiders. Grabbing a spider in each paw, the Caped Avenger lifted and threw the four he grabbed into the other four just as they were starting to get up. "Not too shabby. Eight 160-foot spiders defeated in four minutes." the Caped Avenger thought with a conceited smirk as the action news copter arrived and the feline hero standed over the eight giant spiders he just defeated like a big game hunter with a new trophy.  
  
"I'll let you think you've won, Caped Avenger, and lie low with the rest of my arachnid army for a few days. However, that'll be merely to lull you into a sense of false confidence AND give myself time to carefully plan out my next move." the Arachnid King cackled to himself as he watched the embarrassingly egotistical feline hero taking dramatic bows and posing for the press, unaware of either the Arachnid King or the rest of his followers.  
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A week later, which was six-and-three-quarters days longer than the Caped Avenger needed to repair all of the damage done to the military base and police stations in the Arachnid King's first attempted siege (though the Caped Avenger could only repair the military equipment with the unseen telepathic guidance of the now super-intelligent Odie), the Arachnid King, now commanding an army of 1024 160-foot spiders and wearing a special crown (which boosted his telepathic power enough for him to command his armies from a radius of 256 miles) created using fragments he dug up in the science lab that unwittingly created the Arachnid King, said "I think we let that conceited cosmic-powered cat dangle long enough. Now it is time for us to launch our next attack. I will send 64 of you, in teams of eight, after both military bases within a 256 mile radius of the city AND all six of the police stations in this city. Then I'll put out a signal that will instantly alert the Caped Avenger to the situation. When he shows up, I want all of you out on the field to fight him as hard as you can, even though, to be honest, he probably WILL defeat the first few teams of you. However, the more of you he'll have to take down, the more tired he'll get and the more tired he gets, the weaker he'll become. In the event that he DOES defeat all 64 of the troops, however, I send to the surface, I'll then put out a signal that will lead him right to this lair, where the REST of my army will be able to very quick work of an already exhausted Caped Avenger. I've underestimated him ONCE, but he won't be so lucky a second time." finishing with the typical arch-villain cackle.  
  
Well, it wasn't long before the spiders began attacking their assigned targets and it was almost as fast that the Arachnid King, as planned, planted a special signal device specfically attuned to the Caped Avenger's super-hearing in one of the city's television stations. The message the signal device transmitted was "Caped Avenger, do you remember those eight giant spiders you captured last week? Well, I've got 64 more such spiders attacking all six of this city's police stations and both of the military bases within 256 miles of this city as we speak. That's right, those spiders were under the control of me, the Arachnid King. I challenge you to stop my subjects again, IF YOU DARE, you super-powered feline egomaniac!".  
  
Watching television at the time of the hypersonic signal device's activation, Garfield overhears the villain's challenge and, with a hateful glare, thought "You've got yourself a bet, Arachnid King. I don't know who you are, but I bet your bug buddies before and I'll do it again." as the cat headed for the area where he hid his Caped Avenger costume.  
  
As Garfield was putting on his costume, Odie came forward and telepathically told Garfield "I hate to point this out, but a challenge like that is an all-too-obvious invitation to a trap. I think you might need some help for this case.".  
  
Gently placing his right front paw on Odie's left shoulder, the Caped Avenger thought, with all seriousness, "I appreciate the concern, old friend, but I can handle this. You're best suited providing me with help from a safe distance behind the scenes. I don't want to chance you getting hurt.".  
  
Odie telepathically commented "I sense that you are speaking the truth on that front, Garfield, but it's still only HALF the reason you don't want direct help. The rest of the reason is that you have an ego the size of the planet Jupiter and don't like the idea of sharing the glory. Still, I will admit that, against monsters like these, I wouldn't be of much help directly, so I'll accept that I have to stay behind if you agree to let me see if I can find the Arachnid King's hideout from here and find a way to defeat him from a safe distance.".  
  
"I don't have a problem with that, old friend. By the way, I'll admit you are right about me having an ego the size of the planet Jupiter, but at the same time, I have somewhat of a RIGHT to that ego because I have the powers to back up the VAST majority of my boasts." the Caped Avenger thought simply before he flew off to face the Arachnid King's challenge.  
  
To Be Continued 


	2. Hmmph! Show-Off!

Once more, all sorts of copyrighted stuff and no profit motive involved in the making of this story:  
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In less than a second, the Caped Avenger arrived at the first military base and, knowing that he had at least seven more stops to make, decided to simply swoop down on four of the giant spiders, grab one with each paw, lift them into the air and slam them all together before throwing them into the other four. After that, the super-powered feline hero, just to make certain, collected the four spiders that he threw the other four spiders into, slammed THEIR heads together and dropped them on the first four. "Eight down, 56 to go." the Caped Avenger thought as he flew off for the first police station.  
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Arriving at the first police station in half-a-heartbeat, the Caped Avenger saw a very pretty female Russian Blue and her owners (who were out for a walk at the VERY instant the spiders began their attack just seconds earlier and have been trying in vain to get away since) in the line of fire of the webbing blast of one of the spiders. With not even a split-second's hesitation, the feline do-gooder grabbed the two owners with one front paw and the Russian blue in the other, flying all three well out of the path of the webbing blast (though JUST close enough where they could witness the coming battle) before gently placing them down and zooming up to the eight giant spiders, nailing each one with a full-strength and full-speed two=front-paw punch, which left all eight of those 160-foot arachnids out for the count.  
  
As the Caped Avenger started to fly off, the female Russian Blue communicated "1492 Ocean Street and Blue Boulevard. Anytime after midnight is fine.".  
  
Curious, the Caped Avenger flew back to the Russian Blue and her owners and communicated back "What was that just out of curiousity?".  
  
With a smile the female Russian Blue communicated back "My address and what time it would be okay to see me. My owners are usually in bed by ten p.m. and by midnight, they'll be so sound asleep that we won't wake them no matter HOW MUCH noise we make. I want to PROPERLY thank you for saving me and my owners. My name is Empress by the way.".  
  
Returning her smile, the Caped Avenger looked back at Empress and her owners one last time before flying off toward the second police station.  
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Arriving at the second police station almost instantly, the Caped Avenger saw a few of the spiders starting to launch their super-strong webbing. Thinking fast, the Caped Avenger scooped up one of the spiders and zipped that spider in front of the webbing its own allies were shooting. Before those other spiders could stop spinning their webbing, the super-powered feline hero starting flying around the other seven spiders at a rate that would cause the webbing sticking to the spider he was holding to also securely tie up those other seven giant spiders. With those eight spiders securely tied up, the Caped Avenger flew off toward the third police station, thinking to himself "Three stops in one minute and two dozen giant spider soundly defeated in that same period. I'd say that's doing pretty well.".  
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With inconceivable speed, the Caped Avenger flew toward the next eight spiders, grabbing one in each front paw and using the two he grabbed to bulldoze through the other six before slamming those two spiders' heads together and slamming down on two of the others while they are getting up. After that, the Caped Avenger grabbed the other four giant spiders that were just starting to get up, slammed their heads all together and slammed them down the other four. With four of his eight known stops taken care of, the Caped Avenger flew off with a VERY confident smile.  
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Arriving at the second military base in well under a second, the Caped Avenger started spinning fast enough to produce two holes just deep enough to trip up two of the spiders heading toward a group of soldiers (though if he dug just 100 feet deeper, the feline hero would have unwittingly uncovered one of the Arachnid King's tunnels. After getting the soldiers and their gear out of harm's way, the super-powered feline watched as those two spiders stepped in the holes he dug and tripped. Catching both spiders, the Caped Avenger rolled each of them toward three of the others like bowling balls. As those six nailed spiders went flying, the Caped Avenger flew toward each one individually, walloping each in mid-air with a full-speed and full-strength flying punch and then caught them three at a time, slammed them together (ALSO three at a time) and dropped three on each of the remaining two just as they were starting to get up. With a fifth attack foiled rather handily, the mighty feline flew off toward his sixth stop.  
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Within one second, the flying feline showed up at the fourth police xtation and started giving those eight spiders repeated hot foots with his laser vision (all the while easily dodging the spiders' attacks with his hyper-reflexes) before he finally just walloped each one individually with all of his strength and speed. Checking his watch, the Caped Avenger thought to himself "Rather impressive performance if I DO say so myself. I've ALREADY bested 48 160-foot spiders in two minutes. That should show the Arachnid King that I'm more than a match for his super-sized spiders." as he flew off toward his seventh stop.  
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Filled with supreme confidence, the Caped Avenger arrived at the fifth police station, grabbed two of the giant spiders and started spinning around so fast that he would not only render these two spiders too dizzy to fight, but would also produce a whirlwind powerful enough to engulf the other six giant spiders and pull them in close enough for the feline hero to use the two spiders he was spinning around to club those other six spiders into submission. With those eight spiders dealt with, the Caped Avenger zoomed off for the last police station.  
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Very soon after arriving at his eighth planned stop, the Caped Avenger just started using his laser vision to peel off those giant spiders' exoskeletons. Once those spiders were stripped of those exoskeletons, the super-powered feline simply threw two punches, each powerful enough to knock out four of the now exposed giant spiders. "Eight stops, 74 subdued giant spiders, three minutes. A new world's record." the Caped Avenger thought with an especially smug smirk as his hyper-sensitive nose picked up the scent of freshly baking Italian food and zoomed off toward the source of the smell.  
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Within his underground lair, the Arachnid King said "Very well. Phase two of my trap will now be put into effect. Those 64 spiders I threw at the city performed their function; provide an accurate gauge of my feline foe's fantastic powers. It would have been nice if one of those spider-squads defeated the Caped Avenger, but no use crying over spilled milk. I've already gathered another 64 spiders to replace the ones the Caped Avenger defeated on this outing and, when I lure him into my lair and the en masse ambush of all 1024 of my remaining troops, not even HE will be able to escape." as he used his optic beams to enlarge the 64 new spiders to the size of the others.  
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As the ravenous Caped Avenger ripped threw the entire kitchen of one of the city's top Italian restaurants, he received a telepathic message from Odie.  
  
"I just found out that, over the last two weeks, there were about 1097 less normal-sized spiders seen around the city than usual. Considering that you defeated eight GIANT spiders last week and 64 more giant spiders today, I would surmise noy only that there are probably 1025 giant spiders still remaining, but that one of those giant spiders could very well be the Arachnid King himself, judging from a list of items that were stolen from science labs over the past week. Admittedly, most of these items are mostly harmless when seperated OR in any combination of up to four, which is why the thefts weren't reported immediately. However, when ALL the items are properly combined, they could be used to create a powerful device capable of drastically increasing telepathic power. If you can find the device and destroy it, the Arachnid King MIGHT have to maintain a limited range when controlling his subjects and, if you can lure the Arachnid King's minions out of the range of his control, the battle will be half-won." Odie telepathically replied.  
  
"Thanks for the information, old friend. I'll be sure to keep all of that in mind." the Caped Avenger thought sincerely as his hyper-hearing picked up the pitch of Arachnid King's hypersonic lure. Without wasting a second (well, maybe TWO seconds to finish off the freshly cooking Italian food), the Caped Avenger flew toward the source of the transmission.  
  
To Be Concluded 


	3. Face-to-Face With The King

Note: One last time, Garfield (aka the Caped Avenger), Odie and the Arbuckle household are all copyrighted by Jim Davis, so I'm writing this story with absolutely NO profit motive.  
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Flying through the air at nerve-racking speeds, the Caped Avenger very soon reached the area directly over the source of the hypersonic transmission. "This sounds like the right area." the feline hero thought to himself as he started spinning at a speed that allowed him to become a powerful living drill and very quickly started burrowing downward to the source of the transmission. When he REACHED the source of the signal, however, he found himself surrounded by 1024 160-foot spiders.  
  
"Hoo-boy. This time, I may have bitten off more than even I can chew." the Caped Avenger thought with a gulp, realizing there were quite a few too many giant spiders here for even HIM to defeat at one time. Still, the super-powered feline hero gave it his all, dodging web attacks with his hyper-reflexes, grabbing and throwing the monstrous arachnids two at a time into some of their own, peeling off the spiders' exoskeletons with his laser vision and bombarding a few of the eight-legged giants with tornado-like flurries of punches. Though he wasn't able to defeat all 1024 of the giant spiders surrounding him, the Caped Avenger WAS able to work his way through 128 of the monsters, giving himself JUST enough time and room to tunnel himself out of the remaining spiders' reach a split-second before eight of them could simultaneously trap him in their webbing.  
  
After he finished tunnelling himself to safety, the Caped Avenger decided to focus his energies on tracking down the Arachnid King himself, using his hyper-sensitive nose to track the scent of super-mutated spider (being sure to follow the WEAKER scent because he knew the STRONGER scent would lead him back to the Arachnid King's subjects).  
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Eventually, the Caped Avenger made in through to his first face-to-face meeting with the Arachnid King himself, who pressed a button that activated a device surrounding the feline hero with a very strong force-field bubble.   
  
"I wish I could say I was more than half-surprised you made it this far, Caped Avenger but the way you battled up there on the surface showed that you are both very powerful AND reasonably intelligent, so I knew that, in spite of your ego, you wouldn't be stupid enough to think you could take my ENTIRE army all at once. However, my minions DID succeed in getting you overconfident enough to think you could take me one-on-one. Unfortunately for you, while I will admit to possessing a considerable degree of physical power, I prefer to rely on brains rather than brawn, a fact which hardly bodes well for YOU, my feline friend. I believe you've probably seen enough 60s spy movies to get the cliche`; I leave you in a seemingly fatal situation and gloat about having a world to conquer. Well, I DO have a world to conquer, but, unlike the villains of those 60s spy movies, I WILL stick around to witness your demise, Caped Avenger. After THAT, I'll focus on conquering the world, one city at a time. Naturally, I'll start out small. After all, why bite off more than you can chew? However, as my armies and equipment improve, I'll work my way up to bigger and better cities." the Arachnid King ranted as he switched on a device built into his force-field generator; one that caused the bubble to slowly, but very painfully, constrict around the super-powered feline hero.   
  
Thinking fast, the Caped Avenger pushed to one side of the force field with all of his might and, though he couldn't break through, he WAS able to steer the force field bubble right into the force field generator, which caused it to shatter into 1, 000, 000 pieces and the force field trapping the feline hero to dissipate. However, just tired enough from his battles with the Arachnid King's minions AND from escaping that trap to be caught briefly off-guard, the Caped Avenger was left wide open for one of the Arachnid king's punches, which sent him flying through a good 40 feet of bedrock.  
  
The Arachnid King rapidly made his way toward the Caped Avenger before the feline hero could recover from that sucker-punch and started webbing him up. This was the opportunity the Caped Avenger was hoping for. While the Arachnid King was spinning his webbing, the Caped Avenger destroyed his crown with a quick blast of laser vision, having figured out from its high-tech looking design and the fact that there was nothing else even remotely resembling a telepathy-enhancer device that THIS was how the Arachnid King could control those 160-foot spiders from so far away (as it turned out, the remaining 896 of the Arachnid King's troops were about twenty miles away at that point; five times further away than the Arachnid King could control them from without the crown).  
  
With that, the Caped Avenger broke the Arachnid King's webbing, though it took every ounce of super-strength he could muster to break the webbing, and then threw one punch powerful enough to knock the Arachnid King out cold. However, the instant he fell unconscious, the Arachnid King literally vanished.  
  
A split-second after the villain disappeared, a recording started playing with the Arachnid King's voice. "If you are listening to this, it means I've been rendered unconscious, in which case my automatic emergency teleporter had already kicked in and sent me to my alternate hideout, the location of which I shall not disclose at this time. Here, I will recover from whatever knocked me unconscious and wait patiently, planning for my NEXT campaign. In the meantime, however, I suggest that you have OTHER concerns besides tracking me down; namely stopping my now-completely-out-of-control minions from wreaking havok on your precious city." the recording said, finishing with a cackle.  
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Semi-grudgingly, the Caped Avenger flew after the remaining 896 160-foot spiders, deciding that as much as he hated to admit it, the villainous super-arachnid was right about saving the city being more important than capturing the Arachnid King. Fortunately, just as Odie figured, without the Arachnid King controlling them, the giant spiders were pretty easy for the Caped Avenger to pick off one-by-one and those spiders were all subdued within a half-hour thanks to a series of carefully-planned individual sneak attacks. After that, it was all over except hauling the spiders to the surface, which the super-powered feline hero did four-by-four.  
  
After ten minutes of this, the exhausted by triumphant Caped Avenger had all the subdued spiders carefully placed in a neat pile and flew back home.   
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Epilogue One: Arbuckle Household.  
  
"For the first time in weeks, I'm glad for my self-regenerating energy. That means I'll be back up to full energy after just a half-hour's nap; LONG BEFORE midnight." Garfield thought as he changed out of his Caped Avenger costume and headed for bed.  
  
"Oh, you mean your meeting with that female Russian Blue you saved today." Odie telepathically thought back with a good-naturedly smirk on his face.  
  
"Hey, that's one of the reasons I'm sticking with this super-hero stuff, old friend; it's a good way to impress gorgeous female cats." Garfield admitted with a half-embarrassed grin on his face.  
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Epilogue Two: 1492 Ocean and Blue, midnight:  
  
The Caped Avenger flew over to Empress's house and saw the gorgeous female Russian Blue he saved earlier that day open one of the front windows. "I'm glad you decided to accept my gratitude, hero." Empress communicated with a seductive smile.  
  
Returning her smile, the Caped Avenger flew in, closed the window behind him and, let's just leave the rest to the imagination, okay?  
  
The End  
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As aforementioned, Garfield (aka the Caped Avenger), Odie and the Arbuckle household are all copyrighted by Jim Davis. Therefore, I wrote this story purely for entertainment purposes. 


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